Statistics: Public transport in EU 2000-2012

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UITP is launching its first annual publication on public transport statistics in the EU Member States.

Nearly 57 billion local public transport journeys were made in the European Union in 2012. The pace of growth in public transport journeys since 2000 reflects fluctuations of the economic situation, the growth in urban population and some signs of emerging changes in urban mobility patterns. Moreover, the public transport sector plays a considerable role in managing and delivering sustainable urban mobility in the EU: there are approximately 182 million journeys being made on an average working day in the bloc.

The new UITP statistics publication provides detailed figures by country revealling different levels of demand and different trajectories. It also shows the breakdown of journeys by public transport mode in urban and suburban areas, with buses carrying 56% of the total number of passengers, followed by metros, tramways and suburban railways with 16%, 14% and 14% respectively. This is the first comprehensive effort to gather and analyse local public transport ridership data by country in the whole of the EU. The findings are summarised in a UITP Statistics Brief available here. The statistics brief is one part of a new UITP service that it available free of charge to members and non-members alike.

As part of this new service, all members will soon be able to avail of the complete database of figures on public transport ridership in most EU countries for years 2000 to 2012 (subject to a fee, or free of charge to Advantage and Premium members). These additional services will be available for download soon through our online library, Mobi+.

Please find "Statistics Brief - Local public transport trends in the European Union" here.

About UITP

As a passionate champion of sustainable urban mobility, UITP is internationally recognised for its work to advance the development of this critical policy agenda. UITP has a long history to its name, and is the only worldwide network to bring together all public transport stakeholders and all sustainable transport modes.